My Ford lease is coming due…Edge, really enjoyed it except for awful mileage, turning radius…bad headlights and sound system could have been remedied by selecting titanium package.
In any case, keep getting emails about lease end inspection. I haven’t done them for my last few cars…is there any advantage to doing them? FWIW, there are no major dings or wear and tear on my car. Seems to me that this inspection can only hurt you (as they have it in writing from a neutral 3rd party).
If you simply surrender the car to a dealer, most captives will send out the inspector to the dealership. At that point, you’re unable to remedy any issues.
There’s no need if you don’t have any damage. That being said, if you’re worried the dealer that you return the car to may make up that there is damage, then go for it. You can’t lose.
Turn in without inspection only one set of eyes on the car (or none if they’re lazy/forgetful)…or perhaps, like my last car (Toyota Prius), the dealer ended up buying it despite there being a bunch of paint damage.
With an inspection, now my car is getting inspected twice (I assume that there will be another one after I turn it in). Having something inspected twice (when the outcome can only be negative) can never be better than once, can it?
The dealer isn’t even involved. It’s not their car + not their problem + they wouldn’t benefit financially from “making up damage” anyways. They’ll call the same 3rd party inspector to do the inspection that the OP would do.
Who cares if they inspect it 10 times. It’s not your cost. That said, they don’t reinspect the car when you turn it in.
In this case, you’d have to call the captive + let them know. They’ll most likely want the car reinspected to determine damage + costs involved.
Does the inspection check if the seats are dirty? First time leaser and have a kid. I’m afraid that the kid will make the seat dirty and we cannot clean it completely. Especially for a light color interior. Thanks!
They’ll glance at them to ensure no rips/tears/cigarette burns. If the stains can be removed, you won’t get charged. If the kid spilled a can of paint, then you’ll have a problem.
I was at the car show the other week, all tan/brown leather car seats seem to have gotten the threaded blue jean transfer over, seems like a very common issue that can’t be avoided except to stop wearing denim maybe.
First time leaser here too, do inspections come to whichever address you appoint with them? So that it can be done while at work etc, or do you need to bring it in somewhere.
